The present invention relates to novel water discharge devices. The invention is particularly useful in toy water guns for ejecting water from the gun barrel by the operation of a pump located within the handle of the toy gun, and is therefore described below with respect to this application.
The existing hand-operated toy water guns are generally capable of producing a single type of discharge, namely a continuous stream discharge having a range according to the force applied by the user to the hand-operated pump, typically the trigger of the toy gun. Examples of known devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,678,753 (Hersey), U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,318 (Kunz), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,480 (Shindo). Luk U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,253 discloses a toy water gun which is capable of selectively producing two types of discharges: a continuous stream discharge, or a spray discharge.
In a completely non-related field, namely the water irrigation field, a number high of technology developments have been made in recent years for producing pulsations in the water discharged from the irrigating devices. These water pulsators, when included in specific types of water irrigation systems, have been found to be capable of effecting substantial savings in the water requirements of the irrigation system. Of particular interest are the developments by Peretz Rosenberg as described in his Israel Patents 74332 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,217), 72316 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,004), 93504 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,876), and his more recent developments described in his pending Israel Patent Applications 115969 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,676) and 121380 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,851). Such pulsator devices generally include an expansible chamber, a restrictor for restricting the inlet flow into the expansible chamber, and a pressure-responsive valve controlling the outlet from the chamber. The valve is normally closed to permit the chamber to expand by the water, supplied in a continuous, non-interrupted manner via the restrictor and the inlet, until the pressure within the chamber builds up to open the valve and to produce a pulse discharge, whereupon the valve closes to start a new cycle.